Bunker Hill

by Nathaniel Philbrick (Viking)

The Battle of Bunker Hill, bloodier than any in the eight years of war that followed, serves as a prism through which Philbrick examines the tenacity of the Boston patriots who were determined to maintain autonomy from the British Empire. Philbrick focusses on Joseph Warren, a doctor who was president of the Provincial Congress and a major general in the army, and who was killed on Breed’s Hill—which is adjacent to Bunker Hill, and where the fighting actually occurred. Warren left behind a nascent country, a grieving fiancée, who mythologized his death in her poetry, and, possibly, a pregnant mistress hidden away in a tavern. Occasionally, Philbrick leans too heavily on conjecture in order to advance his narrative, but he captures the drama—martial and emotional—of the months before and after this legendary clash. ♦